Toolholder



Sept. 27, 1955 Filed July 15 1953 F/a Z M g 0 m a M 3 m 6 F m a W x m M m Q United States Patent Ofiice 2,719,042 Patented Sept. 27, 1955 TOOLHOLDER James Robert Espy, Minneapolis, Minn.

Application July 15, 1953, Serial No. 368,040

1 Claim. (Cl. 279-9) This invention relates to a toolholder; more specifically to an extension handle and holder for L-shapecl bar wrenches.

The Allen type set-screw is widely employed in assembling mechanical devices. The screw has a hexagonally shaped recess in the head in place of the conventional slot, and an L-shaped bar of corresponding hexagonal cross-section is customarily provided with each box of such screws to serve as a wrench for tightening and loosening the screws. The various sizes of screws require wrenches of corresponding sizes. The wrenches are difficult to use because their small size limits the amount of leverage which may be applied, and the screws frequently must be placed in difiicultly accessible locations which cannot be reached with the wrench when held in the hand or in an improvised holder.

The present invention provides a holder for these L- shaped hexagonal-bar or similar wrenches, which overcomes the difiiculties and disadvantages hitherto encountered in their use. Wrenches of several different sizes may be employed, the change from one to another being easily and rapidly accomplished. The wrench is firmly held in the holder with a positive grip and without play or lost motion. The operating tip of the wrench is axially aligned with the stem of the holder, which may be of any desired length, so that fitting the wrench into the socket of a screw is not difiicult even though the screw may be in a difiicultly accessible location. The handle member of the holder affords ample grip and leverage for imparting any desired degree of torque. The holder is simply and economically constructed with a minimum of parts.

In the drawing, Figure l is a front elevation, and Figure 2 a side elevation partly in section, of a tool-holder made in accordance with the principles of this invention and with an L-shaped Allen bar wrench in place therein. Figures 3 and 4 illustrate modified handle members, Figure 5 a modified socket member, and Figure 6 a modified plug member which may be substituted for corresponding members of the device of Figures 1 and 2.

The tool holder comprises a handle member 10 and a plug member 11. The handle member consists of a stem 12 of any desired length, having at one end a cross-bar or equivalent handle portion 13 and terminating at the other end in an open-ended internally threaded socket 14 slotted along one side, as indicated at 15, from the open end of the socket to substantially the full depth of the hollow interior. The plug member 11 is correspondingly externally threaded at one end and knurled at the other end, so that it may be screwed by hand into the internally threaded socket 14. The threaded portion preferably extends over at least about one-half the length of the plug and the knurled portion over somewhat less than that amount, as shown in the drawing. The plug has a longitudinal axial bore of a diameter just sufficient to permit the shank of an L-shaped Allen wrench 16 to fit therein, the bore being countersunk to provide a beveled or rounded edge at the inner or threaded end of the plug, forming a shoulder 17 having effiectively the same contour as the inner corner 18 of the wrench 16.

Various alternative structures, such as those listed herebelow, are capable of providing equally effective results and will be recognized as being fully equivalent to those thus far disclosed. The cross-bar 13 and stem 12 may be made as separate pieces, for example with the bar 13a slidably fitting through a hole in the thickened stem 12a, here shown as of angular rather than circular cross-section. The cross-bar form of handle may be replaced by a knurled or fluted terminal section 13b of the shank 12 having an increased diameter. The slot 15a is helically rather than paraxially disposed in the wall of the socket 14a. The continuously threaded surfaces of socket and plug may be paraxially channeled or otherwise modified so as to provide a quick-acting screw connection, is illustrated in connection with the plug 11a of Figure 6. The knurled section of the plug 11 is replaced in the plug 11a by a fluted section 19 which is of substantially greater external diameter than the threaded portion of the plug.

As will be apparent from the drawing, in placing an Allen wrench of the desired size in the toolholder, a plug member 11 of the proper diameter of bore is first selected. The plug is placed over the long shank of the wrench and this assembly is then advanced into the socket 14 of the handle member, the shorter shank of the wrench slidably advancing within the slot 15 as the plug is screwed into the socket. The wrench is thereby firmly held in place with the longer shank along the extended axis of the handle member 12.

The width of the slot 15 and the diameter of the bore of the plug 11 determines the maximum size of wrench which can be accommodated, but wrenches of any desired smaller size may also be used in the toolholder simply by selecting a plug of proper bore. In each case the wrench will be firmly held in place, with the shorter shank held in a positive grip between the shoulder 17 of the plug and the body of the socket 14 at the end of the channel 15 and with the adjacent portion of the longer shank fitting snugly within the axial bore of the plug 11.

Having now described my invention in terms of illustrative but non-limitative embodiments, what I claim is as follows:

A toolholder for an L-shaped bar wrench as herein described and consisting of a handle member and an associated plug member; the handle member having a shank portion, a handle portion at one end thereof, and an openended internally-threaded socket portion at the other end thereof, said socket portion having in the side thereof an open channel extending from the open end of the socket to substantially the full depth of the hollow interior, said channel being of a width suflicient to accommodate the largest wrench for which the toolholder is designed; said plug member being correspondingly externally threaded at one end and being externally roughened at the other end so that it may be screwed by hand into said socket member, and having a longitudinal axial bore of a diameter just sufiicient to receive the shank of an L-shaped bar Wrench, said bore being expanded at the end of said plug having the threaded exterior so as to form a shoulder having effectively the contour of the inner corner of the wrench at the juncture between the short and the long shank sections thereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,901,168 Kalben Mar. 14, 1933 1,918,306 Williams July 18, 1933 2,110,202 Crane Mar. 8, 1938 2,346,364 Dowe Apr. 11, 1944 2,409,613 Brooks Oct. 22, 1946 2,465,619 Veit Mar. 29, 1949 2,475,268 Wittle July 5, 1949 2,569,069 Motel Sept. 25, 1951 

